Faucet



'UNITED sTATEs narrar orriou.

WILLIAM BALL, OF CABOTSVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

FAUCET.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,431, dated February 1, 1848..

` an elevation of the underside of my improved faucet, the same being represented as closed. Fig. 2, is a similar view of it, as it appears when open. Fig. 3, is a central and longitudinal section of it, taken through the confining screws of the cap plate, when the faucet is open. Fig. 4, is a central and longitudinal section of it, taken in the plane of the handle and orifice of discharge, when the faucet is open.7 Fig. 5, is a transverse section taken through the middle of the orice of discharge, when the faucet is open. Fig. 6, is a transverse section taken through the orifice of discharge, when the faucet is closed or shut. Fig. 7 is a front end view of the faucet. Finally, Fig. 8, is a transverse section, taken through the studs or projections just in rear of the cap plate and handle.

A, in said figures is a tapering tube, circular in its cross section. It has a screw a cut on one end of it (for the purpose of inserting and fixing it in the head of a barrel or elsewhere), and two ears Z), 0, projecting in opposite directions from one another, from its upper part as seen in the drawings. It also has an elongated slot or discharge vent or opening cZ, made through its side. I

Within the said tube A, is another tapering tube B, the lower end of which is open, while the upper end is closed by a head or plate e, to which a handle C, is attached, and from which it is made to extend, as seen in the drawings. The said tube B, is confined in placewithin the tube A, by a cap or colworks through the said aperture, and has the handle C, projecting from it. The said inner tapering tube B has an elongated aperture Z, of the size of the vent CZ, made through its side. It also has two studs or projections m., n, extending from its head vplate as seen in Fig. 8.

Within the interior part or surface of the outer tube A, is a shallow lubricating chamber or space V0. It is about the length of the discharging vent, and extends around the interior of the tube, from near one side of the vent to near the other side of it, as seen in Fig. 6. At a short distance below the chamber 0, there is another chamber or space y), made in the tube A, and formed entirely around the lower end of the inner tube B, and a short distance below it as seen in the drawings.

Vhen the tube B, isturned around within the tube A, so as to bring the hole Z, of the former in direct or partial coincidence with the aperture, vent or opening d, the faucet is said to be open, in which case the liquor of the vessel into which the faucet may be fixed, will flow through the faucet, and out of the two openings Z, and cZ. In such a p0- sition of the two holes, the projection m, will be in contact with the side of the screw 72,.

On applying the hand to the handle C, and turning the tube B, around within the tube A, until the projection n, is made to come into contact with the screw z', I close the faucet, that is to say, I move the aperture Z, of the inner tube B, entirely by and beyond the discharging vent eZ, and by so doing, carry a solid portion of the tube A. directly over the vent LZ, in such manner as to entirely close it, and prevent any of the liquor from passing out of the vessel and through said vent while the parts of the faucet are suffered to remain in'such a relation to one another. In this position of the said parts the faucet may be said to be closed.7 f

My improvement consists in the application and use of the lubricating or antifriction chamber o. The peculiar object of the same may be thus explained. It is well known that when a faucet is made without such a chamber, and with two ground tapering surfaces, working together in direct contact with one another, a small portion of the molasses or other thick liquid of the vessel into which said faucet may be introextent as when moved on one another asoften to tear out the sound metal and cause creases to appear in one or both of the surfaces in contact. Now when this is the case with a faucet it must necessarily prove injurious and cause a leakage. In my improved faucet it will be seen that the only parts of the adjacent surfaces of the two tubes in rubbing contact are a narrow belt of surface, surrounding the vent or discharge opening, and two narrow circular belts, extending around within the outer tube and just above and below the vent, together with corresponding portions of the outer surface of the inner tube. AWhen the faucet is closed the liquid of the vessel, i

flows freely through the aperture Z, and into the lubricating chamber o, and so as to fill said chamber, with a thick body of said liquid, suiicient not only to prevent the adjacent surfaces (within the said chamber) of the two tubes, from adhering together, but to lubricate or moisten therubbing surfaces, during their movements on one another. What I claim therefore as my invention is- The combination of the lubricating chamber o, with the two outer and inner tubes A, and B, of the faucet the whole being effected substantially in the manner and for the purpose as specified.

Inv testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature this eleventh day of December A. D. 1847.

WM. BALL. 

